Advancing Your Career Concepts of Professional Nursing, 7th Edition, Rose Kearney Nunnery Questions and Answers

Chapter 1. Your Professional Identity

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Professional Identity Multiple Choice Questions

 1. Before preparing a teaching tool on wound care, the nurse reviews several research articles on the topic. Which characteristic of a profession is the nurse demonstrating?

1. Exerting authority
2. Validating a theory
3. Using a knowledge base
4. Following a code of ethics

Rationale: A profession is guided by systematic theory that serves as the foundation for its knowledge base. Reviewing research before creating a teaching tool demonstrates the nurse drawing on validated information. Authority reflects the knowledge and skills built through education and experience that ground professional judgment, but isn't itself demonstrated by reviewing articles; validating a theory would require conducting studies to replicate results; and a code of ethics addresses practice values and colleague relationships, not information-gathering.

2. The nurse prepares to assess participants attending a community health fair by first reviewing characteristics, ages, and occupations of the attendees. On which concept within the metaparadigm of nursing is the nurse focusing?

1. Health
2. Nursing
3. Environment
4. Human beings

Rationale: The concept of human beings focuses on the individual, family, group, or community receiving care and their unique characteristics — which is exactly what the nurse is reviewing here. Health relates to the type of nursing and care needed; nursing is defined by activities, goals, and services; and environment covers the physical, social, cultural, spiritual, and emotional setting in which a person lives and interacts.

3. The nurse is responsible for planning and evaluating the care for a specific group of patients. Which competency is the nurse demonstrating when participating in a weekly care conference with other care providers to discuss the patients' goals and outcomes?

1. Patient-centered care
2. Evidence-based practice
3. Apply quality improvement
4. Work in interdisciplinary teams

Rationale: Of the five core competencies required across health professions, participating in care conferences with other providers demonstrates working in interdisciplinary teams. Patient-centered care means care is built around the patient's needs and desires; evidence-based practice means care is grounded in research; and applying quality improvement means analyzing care and outcomes for areas to improve — none of which is what a shared care conference specifically demonstrates.

4. The nurse attends an educational seminar that focuses on the characteristics of a profession. Which characteristic should the nurse identify that addresses the formal and informal groups within the profession?

1. Authority
2. Code of ethics
3. Professional culture
4. Community sanction

Rationale: Professional culture is described as the formal and informal groups represented within a profession. Authority comes through education and experience; a code of ethics addresses practice values and colleague relationships; and community sanction is the professional and legal regulation of practice through statutes, rules, and defined expectations.

5. The nurse believes that nursing is a profession that identifies and addresses patient needs in order to promote maximum health and comfort. In which way should this belief be characterized?

1. Mission
2. Philosophy
3. Ethical code
4. Competency

Rationale: A philosophy of nursing is a nurse's personal belief system or worldview — their own definition of nursing — which is what's being described here. A mission statement identifies an organization's overall goal; a code of ethics addresses practice values and colleague relationships; and competency requires ongoing learning and continuing education.

6. The nurse works full-time and attends baccalaureate nursing courses in the evening three days a week. Which personal factor might be jeopardized by the nurse's work and school schedule?

1. Hours and fatigue
2. Social obligations
3. Health and fitness
4. Course requirements

Rationale: Health and fitness is the personal factor most directly put at risk by this kind of overloaded schedule. Hours and fatigue are considerations tied to work, social obligations are tied to family, and course requirements are tied to school — each a factor in a different life domain rather than a personal one.

7. The nurse is enrolled in a baccalaureate nursing course. What should the nurse do before preparing resources to successfully complete this course?

1. Purchase the textbook
2. Read the course description
3. Analyze personal learning style
4. Sign up for a voluntary study group

Rationale: Learning style is how a person best perceives, thinks about, organizes, uses, and retains knowledge. Identifying it first allows the nurse to then choose resources that fit their strengths. Purchasing the textbook is obtaining a specific resource rather than a preparatory step; reading the course description happens before enrolling, not before preparing resources; and study groups aren't universally useful — they can waste time if they don't match the person's learning style.

Multiple Response

8. The nurse is reviewing the characteristics of a profession. In which way does the community sanction nursing practice? (Select all that apply.)

1. Statutes
2. Rules and regulations
3. Definitions of practice
4. Continuity in the profession
5. Expectations for practitioners

Rationale: Community sanction — the professional and legal regulation of nursing practice — occurs through statutes, rules and regulations, definitions of practice, and expectations for practitioners. Continuity in the profession is instead granted through licensure and the practice parameters set out in state practice acts, which is a separate mechanism.

9. The nurse is completing a personal practice evaluation. On which area should the nurse focus when evaluating professional practice? (Select all that apply.)

1. Certification
2. Code of ethics
3. Job description
4. Scope of practice
5. Consumer evaluation

Rationale: Professional practice evaluation covers self-regulation (personal accountability for the knowledge base and participation in peer review) and professional regulation (upholding quality standards analyzed for outcomes). Certification, code of ethics, job description, and scope of practice all fall under this evaluation. Consumer evaluations aren't used to assess self- or professional regulation.

10. The nurse receives a notice for a continuing education seminar. Which should be analyzed to determine if the seminar will contribute to the nurse's level of competency? (Select all that apply.)

1. Self-evaluation
2. Self-assessment
3. Patient outcomes
4. Ongoing learning
5. Research analysis

Rationale: Continuing education for competency involves self-evaluation, self-assessment, and ongoing learning — identifying learning and developmental needs is an expected, continual part of competent practice. Analyzing patient outcomes is instead used to determine quality of practice, and research analysis falls under evidence-based practice rather than competency development.

11. The nurse is preparing a teaching tool on the standards for professional performance. Which standard should the nurse include? (Select all that apply.)

1. Leadership
2. Collaboration
3. Consumerism
4. Communication
5. Resource utilization

Rationale: The standards for professional performance include ethics, culturally congruent practice, communication, collaboration, leadership, education, evidence-based practice and research, quality of practice, professional practice evaluation, resource utilization, and environmental health. Consumerism isn't among them.

12. The nurse is participating on an organization's quality improvement committee. On which rule of quality healthcare should the committee focus? (Select all that apply.)

1. Waste is continuously decreased.
2. Personal safety is the first priority.
3. The patient is the source of control.
4. Decision making is evidence-based.
5. Cooperation among clinicians is a priority.

Rationale: The IOM's 2001 report Crossing the Quality Chasm proposed ten rules for quality healthcare, including continuous waste reduction, the patient as the source of control, evidence-based decision making, and cooperation among clinicians. Safety in this framework is treated as a system property rather than a matter of personal priority, which is why that option doesn't fit.

13. The nurse reviews the different courses within a master's degree in nursing program. Which should the nurse expect to be a core focus of this program? (Select all that apply.)

1. Health policy and advocacy
2. Quality improvement and safety
3. Informatics and healthcare technologies
4. Scholarship for evidence-based practice
5. Professionalism and professional values

Rationale: Health policy and advocacy, quality improvement and safety, and informatics and healthcare technologies are identified as essentials of master's-level nursing education. Scholarship for evidence-based practice and professionalism and professional values are instead essentials of baccalaureate-level education.

14. The nurse enrolls in a baccalaureate nursing course that focuses on clinical prevention and population health. What should the nurse expect to do to learn the information? (Select all that apply.)

1. Recall the information
2. Critically analyze the information
3. Determine if the information is ethical
4. Use the information in a similar situation
5. Incorporate the information into the value system

Rationale: Learning is the perception and assimilation of information, and it leads to knowledge through recalling, critically analyzing, applying, and incorporating information into one's value system. Determining whether information is ethical isn't part of the learning process itself.

15. The nurse plans a learning program to focus on the affective domain. Which characteristic should the nurse measure to determine the effectiveness of this program? (Select all that apply.)

1. Values
2. Feelings
3. Attitudes
4. Knowledge
5. Thought processes

Rationale: The affective domain covers the impact of learning on personal values, feelings, and attitudes. Knowledge and thought processes instead fall under the cognitive domain, which concerns intellectual ability rather than affect.